Typical chicken houses contain thousands of chickens, with not much for the chickens to do (except eat and gain weight). Some welfare programs encourage an enriched indoor environment to relieve boredom and encourage exercise. Enrichment could include roosts and perches, scratching areas, hay bales, cabbages for chickens to peck at, and other opportunities for the birds to engage in behaviors other than eating and sleeping.

Indoor enrichment: Criteria key

industry baseline

indoor enrichment is encouraged but not required.

at least 1 type of indoor enrichment is required.

program requires at least two types of indoor enrichment; or program requires meaningful outdoor access which means chickens can engage in natural behaviors outdoors, indoor enrichment is less important.